Tab — a startup building a personal AI assistant that lives inside iMessage and WhatsApp — officially emerged from stealth on October 6, 2026, announcing a $300M valuation. TechCrunch reported the news. The startup was founded in early 2026 by Brennan Erbz, Stafford Schlitt, and Ammar Amdani.

How Tab Works

Tab works differently from ordinary chatbots: it lives inside messaging apps — iMessage and WhatsApp. Users send everyday requests as plain messages: order food, book a trip, make a call, or pay bills. The assistant doesn't stop at explaining how to do the task — it does the task itself.

Each Tab assistant has its own phone number, personal computer, and digital wallet. According to the company's official website, the assistant accepts requests as text, photos, PDFs, and videos, and works in the background through its own computer and browser. The product is currently in closed beta, with access opening through a waitlist.

A separate phone number and computer mean the assistant can act independently on the user's behalf: make calls, fill in forms on websites, complete bookings. The digital wallet makes it possible to handle payment-requiring tasks — orders and bills — without the user's direct involvement.

This approach is part of a new wave of recent years — agentic AI. Ordinary conversational models answer questions, while agents open browsers, fill in forms, make calls, and process payments. Tab stands out by placing these capabilities not in a separate app but inside the messaging apps users already use every day.

Privacy and Trust

Entrusting an assistant with a phone number, payment instruments, and personal errands puts privacy front and center. The company offers several guarantees: user data is not used to train AI models, payment cards are stored in a secure vault that Tab itself cannot access, and no irreversible action is performed without the user's consent.

Co-founder Ammar Amdani described the essence of competition in the consumer AI market in a comment to TechCrunch this way: in his view, this race will be won on trust, not the best demos.

"The consumer AI race will be won on trust rather than the best demos"

According to him, the company is growing mainly through word of mouth — which also underscores the importance of the trust factor. The privacy guarantees — not using data for training, storing payment details in a vault the company itself cannot see, performing irreversible actions only with consent — are the practical part of precisely this trust strategy.

Tab was founded in early 2026 by three co-founders — Brennan Erbz, Stafford Schlitt, and Ammar Amdani. Until now, the company had operated in stealth mode and had not presented its product to the wider public. The October 6 announcement was the startup's first public appearance: until then, almost no information about it existed.

Funding and Valuation

SV Angel, Valar Ventures, and American Spirit invested in the round at the $300M valuation. The company did not disclose the exact amount raised. For a startup founded in 2026, such a valuation reflects investors' strong interest in the consumer AI agent space.

Agentic AI has become one of the main destinations of investment flows over the past two years. Investors are now directing large sums not only to labs building large language models but also to products bringing those models into everyday life. Tab's emergence from stealth at a high valuation is another confirmation of this trend.

What's Next

The company said it plans to release a new product soon but disclosed no details. The closed beta and waitlist mean the product is not yet open to the general public. Tab currently works only inside messaging apps; the new product could expand those boundaries, but the company has made no official statement about that.

According to Amdani, Tab is growing mainly through word of mouth — new users come not through advertising but on the recommendation of existing users. This growth model also fits the company's trust-based strategy: people recommend to friends an assistant they trust with their money and personal errands.

Tab's strategy is clearly stated: while competitors compete on the best demos, the company sees user trust as its key advantage. The high valuation, well-known investors, and growing interest give the startup a strong start — the next step is to prove the promised reliability in practice.